A RETIRED Christian Brother who taught at a Limerick Primary School during the 70s and 80s, has been convicted of indecently assaulting a pupil at the school after a jury heard evidence from a victim who was raped in the toilets and had his genitals burned with a cigarette.
Seamus (James) Treacy, (75) with an address at Ashton Close, Swords, County Dublin, will be sentenced next month after a jury found him guilty of the indecent assaults on a young boy who was aged 10 at the time.
The offences, which date back to the late 1970s, happened in the toilet of the school and in a classroom.
Treacy, who has a number of previous convictions for similar offences, denied the charges and a three day trial followed.
The victim, who was in fifth class at the time, told the court how the teacher beat him after he was caught smoking in the school toilets with two other boys.
However, dismissing the others, the victim said that Treacy raped him in the toilets and burned his genitals with the cigarette he had confiscated.
The victim told the court that a bar of soap was shoved in his mouth “then I was bent over and he (Treacy) penetrated me”.
Other incidents in the classroom recalled by the victim included his being beaten by Treacy “The next thing, his hand went down the inside of my pants. I bit him on his left arm.”
The trial heard that the boy was often singled out and picked on by Treacy.
“I was scared to death” the victim said. “He told me it was my fault; that I was sinning and that if I told anyone, God would take my mother as she was ill at the time.”
Deliberating the two separate charges over two days, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict in relation to one of the charges and a majority 10-2 guilty verdict on the second charge.
Judge Tom O’Donnell presiding, thanked the jury and excused them from further jury service for seven years.
The victim, now aged in his 40s, will prepare a victim impact statement for the hearing.
In December 2015, Seamus Treacy was jailed for 20 months for offences he committed at the same school during 1978 and 1981.
The former cleric had denied 72 charges put before the court.
The jury found him guilty of 30 separate offences but were unable to reach agreement on the remaining 42.
At the time of sentencing, the then presiding judge John Hannan said that “schools should have been a place of safety and enjoyment for these children, but for these boys it was anything but.
Treacy was remanded on continuing bail until the end of June for sentencing.
